Anything
by domina tempore
Summary: Teyla... you know I'd do anything for you, right?" Post S5. How far is he willing to go for her...and will he let her know what it costs him? Birthday present for Alydia Rackham! ...eventual J/T. ON HIATUS.
1. Prologue

_Author's Note: This fic is a birthday present for my very good friend, Alydia Rackham :D The original prompt for it was simply "John showing Teyla around San Francisco"... and what is to come all spiraled out of that, believe it or not ;). So the first chapter or so will deal with that; then there will be a bunch of angst...and then the ending will be happy ;) I really hope that you like it, like it, girl! Happy birthday! :D_

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**Prologue**

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For the first time in a long time, John sought out Teyla in concern. Things had been different between them since her pregnancy, but even then there had been none of the carefully ignored awkwardness that had bled through their relationship since finding her people. Or, more accurately, since finding _Kanaan_.

John fought to keep from cringing at the thought of him. After all, Teyla loved him; and as long as she was happy, well, he'd just have to deal.

...But she _wasn't_ happy.

Ever since Atlantis had come to Earth to defend it from a wraith attack, they had been unable to travel between the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies. It had only been in the past few weeks that the Apollo and Daedelus had been cleared to return to Pegasus to bring supplies and news of their success to the Athosians who had stayed in Pegasus. But the IOA, contrary to the promises that they had made to Teyla upon her arrival, were stonewalling her at every turn, delaying her from going on one of the ships to visit her people and bring back her family. He'd seen her become more and more discouraged and sad as time continued and she couldn't see her son, and he couldn't take it anymore.

Teyla seemed surprised when he knocked on her door; another painful reminder of how long it really had been since they had sought each other out when the situation was not professional.

"Colonel, is there something wrong?" she asked. For about three seconds, John was silently, quickly looking her over and noting how tense she was. He had to get her out of here.

"Come with me; I wanna show you the city." He took her hand and started to lead her away. The little resistance that she gave was more of a token protest than anything else; she wanted to get out as much as he wanted her to.

"But I am not from your world; I will make mistakes, someone will figure it out..." He smiled a little bit.

"Teyla, relax. You'll do fine; no ones going to be paying much attention to the two of us; and besides, I think that both you and Ronon have learned a lot more about Earth than you ever let on to me." A slight blush colored her cheeks, and he decided that he was right. "See? No problem. We'll go hit the town for a couple of hours and relax; and then I'll take you to talk to the IOA again. Maybe if there's two of us, they'll pay attention when we remind them that Pegasus is your home and they can't keep you here against your will." Teyla's steps faltered.

"Do you really think that they will listen?"

"Well, I _have_ saved their butts a couple of times; so have you, kinda. I think that that's worth a few minutes of attention and respect." Something flickered in Teyla's eyes, quick enough that he wasn't sure whether or not it was his imagination, and she smiled at him; the first truly genuine smile that he had seen from her in weeks.

"Thank you," she said. "This means a great deal to me..."

"Hey, it's no problem. But first, we're gonnago wander around San Francisco for a while, and _relax_; you've been way too stressed lately. Might as well have some fun first before we jump into the lions den..." Teyla smirked.

"An appropriate description, I believe." She sighed briefly. "Alright, fine. Let us go see the city."

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_A/N: Sorry that this was so short, and very nearly late. I had to re-write this, because my first drafts were *awful* :P But I hope that you like it! :D More should be coming soon :)_


	2. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: Alydia-I'm SO SORRY that this chapter has taken so outrageously long to get out. It decided that it didn't want to be written; and then on top of that, it decided to get half its facts wrong, so I had to go back and edit it and rearrange some things so that everything worked out. But it's here now! :D LOL I hope that you like it! :)_

_Thank you for all of the reviews that I received on the beginning of this; I hope that you all like this next bit! :D_

_Note: Mitchell's is a real ice cream place in San Francisco. I have never been there before personally, but I *did* look it up to make sure that I had everything straight (except for the buses. I couldn't figure out where they ran. That is one of the reasons that it took me so long to finish.) So yeah, real place. And apparently, it's very good. Try it if you get the chance (everyone seems to recommend the mango ;) LOL)_

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**Chapter One**

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Teyla fought to keep her amazement from her face as she followed John around San Francisco, trying not to stand out. Her senses were assaulted with the sights and sounds and smells of the big city, and she hardly knew where to look first. She was sure that she looked hopelessly lost and stupid.

"Stop worrying," John whispered suddenly in her ear. She looked up at him.

"What?"

"Stop worrying; you'll be fine. You don't look any different than anyone else walking around this city."

"Obviously I do, because you noticed."

"That's because I know you. Teyla, relax. Please. That was the point of all this, remember?" He sighed. "Alright, we're gonna try something different. Come with me." He took her hand, and started to lead her towards one of the large buildings that lined the busy streets.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"You remember how once I tried to take you shopping, but it turned out it was all in our heads?" Teyla was still not quite sure how all of that had worked, but she remembered the mission that had caused it. She nodded. "Well, I'm going to take you shopping for real, today." They entered the store, and Teyla was nearly as overwhelmed there as she had been outside. It was _huge_.

"There is so much..." she breathed, her eyes flickering around and taking in all of the stores and what they sold. It was amazing; so many choices, and so much of everything... She didn't know where to look first.

Fortunately, Sheppard seemed to know exactly where he wanted to take her.

"Here," he said, leading her towards a store with large glass windows that let everyone in the bigger store---the mall, she remembered it was called---look inside. "Lets start with clothes, and move on from there." They entered the store, and he let her loose.

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John was enjoying this.

At the moment, all of their on-Earth expenses were still on the SGC and th IOA, so he wasn't going to stop her from buying whatever she wanted. They deserved to lose a few bucks for her after what they were doing to her; and he was fine with helping that along.

He didn't necessarily _understand_ why girls loves shopping so much, but he was willing to go along with her for the day. At that point, he would have done anything to help her relax and smile. She was a little bit overwhelmed by the process in the beginning, still; but by the time they left the store two hours later, toting bags, she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

"Where are we going next?" she asked him after they had stowed the bags in the car---also being paid for by the IOA.

"To get a snack, I think," he said. His empty stomach had been protesting to him all morning, growling irritably to remind him that he hadn't had breakfast, just coffee that day. "Anything in particular you'd like to try?" Teyla shrugged.

"What do you suggest?" she asked. John thought for a moment.

"Mitchell's," he said suddenly, brightening.

"Colonel Mitchell's...?" she asked, confused. Sheppard shook his head, laughing a bit.

"No, not him. Mitchell's is an ice cream place, maybe fifteen minutes drive from here. I used to have a cousin who lived in the area, and whenever we visited him, we'd go get ice cream at this place. He doesn't live there anymore; but the ice cream is amazing. Do you want to try it?"

"Alright," she agreed softly, smiling.

"Do you mind if we take a bus there?" John asked suddenly. "We can leave the car here and come back for it; but I don't think that you can trust me with directions if I'm not...you know, flying."

"I understand," Teyla assured him quickly.

"Thanks," he grinned.

The bus schedules were in their favor that day; they found the correct bus very quickly, and got to the neighborhood Sheppard remembered within twenty minutes. The bus didn't go directly to Mitchell's, however; so they agreed to get off at the closest stop and walked the rest of the way, enjoying the mildly warm day.

They got off the bus and headed down the street; and after only a couple of steps, John linked hs arm through Teyla's. She looked up at him in surprise, but she didn't try to pull away, so he smiled and kept walking. Silence reigned between them, but it was comfortable; not awkward as it had often become of late. Teyla was lost in her own thoughts, and in the sights and sounds around her; learning the ways of his world. And John was lost in her.

She was beautiful. She was practically glowing with wonder at the things that she saw; so different from the sadness that had edged her features these past few weeks. She'd changed into some of the clothes that she'd bought---dark jeans and a light blue t-shirt---and to look at her now, you would never know all of the things that she had been through. John had not seen her look this...young, in a long time.

"What is that?" Teyla asked suddenly, pointing to a shop a little farther down the street. A long line of people streamed out the door onto the sidewalk. John grinned.

"That is Mitchell's," he explained, grinning. "Sorry about the wait; I hope you don't mind."

"If you do not..."

"Not at all; believe me, it's well worth it. Besides, this is your day, Teyla, remember? I'm just along for the ride." He winked. "Whatever makes you happy today." She smiled.

"Thank you," she said. He realized that she'd thanked him a lot today. He felt himself grow warm at that thought, although he wasn't sure why.

"Any time," he assured her lightly, hoping that she couldn't see the feeling in his eyes. She seemed oblivious.

The line moved quick enough, and soon they were inside the cool little shop, viewing the flavors. John could see Teyla's eyes glazing over a little as she once again became overwhelmed with the variety.

"You like strawberries, right?" he asked. She nodded. "Well, you're going to get them in ice-cream form today. That was always my favorite flavor here."

"Whatever you say..."

"Trust me, you'll love it," he assured her, ignoring her teasingly skeptical raised eyebrow.

"What can I get you?" The line had moved forward again, and the kid behind the counter was waiting for them.

"Two strawberries and cream cones, please," John said.

"Alright, coming right up." A few minutes later, the two of them were walking back down the street with large, pink ice cream cones.

John took his first taste of it and allowed himself a sigh of pleasure.

"Now _this_is what I'm talkin' about!" he said contentedly, glancing at Teyla. She had just hesitantly tasted it; and he saw her face slowly spreading into another one of those radiant smiles.

"I'm guessing you like it?" he teased. She nodded, too busy enjoying the ice cream to answer with words.

Suddenly, John's cell phone rang from his pocket. He cursed quietly, missing the convenient, no-hands set up of their radios, and tried to juggle his ice cream cone while digging in his pocket for the stupid phone. Teyla relieved him of the treat, and he managed to get the thing out and answer it.

"Sheppard," he said brusquely, irritated at the interruption.

"Colonel? This is Richard Woolsey." John made a face, but forced himself not to hang up on the man.

"Oh, hey. What's up, something interesting happening?"

"Where are you?"

"San Francisco, where are you?" Woolsey ignored his question.

"Is Teyla with you?" John glanced at her and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, she's here. What's up?"

"Mr. Coolige decided to change plans; the meeting that the two of you requested for tonight has been bumped up to now."

"Well he's gonna have to wait; it'll take us at least 15 minutes to get back to the car, and then---"

"We'll send someone for the car; Daedelus is beaming you to our headquarters now."

"Look, _we_ called the meeting, not him; as far as I'm concerned---"

"Colonel, I'm sorry, but I didn't decide this. Don't shoot the messenger." John took a deep breath, and when he let it out he considered himself to be relatively calm again, in addition to slightly light-headed.

"We're on a street full of people; how do you expect to get us out?"

"It's a bit cliche, but are there any alleys that you could duck down?" John gave the area a cursory glance, and found to his annoyance that Woolsey had guessed right on the money.

"Just so we're clear," he said firmly into the phone, "we are _never _going to mention this to anyone. Got it?"

"Yes. Now please hurry and get someplace out of sight. We're beaming you out in exactly two minutes." He hung up.

John cursed again, frustrated.

"John, what's going on?" Teyla asked with concern. Belatedly, he remembered that she had only heard his side of the conversation.

"That son of a..._Mr. Coolige _from the IOA has decide that he doesn't have time for us later, so he's rescheduled our meeting for right now, leaving us two minutes to find an alley to hide in so that no one will see us leave."

"Perhaps they have finally come to a decision, and do not wish to leave it until tonight."

"We can always hope that you're right," he grumbled, taking back his melting ice cream and desperately licking the drips off as they headed down an alley. The IOA could push him around, yeah, but he _would_ finish his ice cream, darn it! "Because if it's _anything_ else, they're gonna have a bit more to worry about than their schedule." They reached the end of the alley and glanced back; there was no one in the area.

"All clear," he announced out of habit, right before they were enveloped by the blinding white light of the transporter.

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TBC

_A/N: I hope that you liked it; and again, SO sorry for being so late. Hopefully I will be able to be better about updating now (but don't quote me on that; I think that I just got a new job :P LOL)_


	3. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: Hello? Anyone still out there? :P As always, I'm sorry for the delay. I must have had this chapter written out in one of my notebooks for nearly a month and a half; but between my job (which was temporary, and has now ended) and the holidays and the original fiction that I've been working on, I haven't seemed to be able to find the time to sit down and type this out. Thank you all so much for bearing with me; and Alydia, I hope that you like this chapter (you got your dancing scene, now I get my fanfiction :P lol). Much love to you, dear! :D_

_Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story; and for everyone who is bearing with my erratic updates. You have no idea how much I appreciate it! _

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**Chapter Two**

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Woolsey was watching when John ad Teyla beamed into the IOA building. He took in their casual, dressed down appearances and their ice cream cones in a glance, and sighed.

"I guess that there's no time to do anything about your clothes..." he said in a distracted voice, reaching for their ice cream cones.

"Hey!" Sheppard protested as he snatched his cone away. "I wasn't done with that!"

"I'm afraid that you are now, Colonel; the meeting has already started. Please make this as easy as possible," he begged when John opened his mouth to argue. "Now, the rest of the board is right through that door."

"Fine," John said tightly, taking Teyla's arm with a gentle hand and heading for the room Richard had specified.

Woolsey turned to follow them, and stopped short when he remembered the ice cream dripping on his hands. He threw a helpless glance around searching for a solution as John and Teyla entered the conference room.

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The entire IOA board of directors was sitting around the large table in the room that John and Teyla entered

...With no seats to spare, the Colonel realized with annoyance. Any hope he'd had that they'd been called in so Teyla could be given permission to go home was smothered and died a quick death then and there. This was downright disrespectful. Nothing good could come of it.

Mr. Coolige smiled falsely at them from his place near the head of the table, on the other side of the room.

"Colonel, Teyla, won't you come in?"

"I think we'll stand here, thanks," John said, with all of the sarcastic politeness that he could manage. "So what's up? I assume that you have a good reason for interrupting us and calling us out here on our day off?"

"You were the ones who scheduled the appointment today. We were merely forced to bump up your time slot; we have several...more pressing issues to attend to later." His eyes narrowed a little, and John fought the urge to punch him. He kind of hoped that he wouldn't be able to withstand it.

"So what's the verdict?" he asked instead, clenching his hands into tight fists at his sides. "Good news, I hope?" A collective glance went around the room.

"We've finished reviewing Ms. Emmagan's proposal," Coolige said after a moment. "We found it...very interesting."

"Then you've called us here because you've made a decision?" John prompted, ignoring Woolsey's awkward and belated entrance behind him.

Coolige nodded, the expression on his face twisting into one of such insincere regret that John almost _did_ hit him.

"We've been forced to deny it," he told them.

John opened his mouth to explain to Coolige---in no uncertain terms---exactly what he thought of him, but Teyla's choked gasp cut him off.

"Excuse me?!" she demanded, her voice rising half an octave.

"You cannot return with any of our ships to the Pegasus Galaxy."

"My husband and son---"

"_Furthermore_, until further notice you are confined to Cheyenne Mountain Complex without IOA or military escort; preferably both."

"Are you _kidding_?!" John shouted, his words coming out hoarse. "She came here to Earth of her own free will, with the _promise_that she would be able to go back for her family!" He was choking on his words now. For one, Teyla had just referred to Kanaan as her _husband_, something he had never heard her do before; and that notwithstanding, he was furious with Coolige and the IOA and everything that they were doing to Teyla. "You have _no right_ to keep her here against her will!'

"We have every right, Colonel. She is an alien here, and until we can be certain that she poses no threat to us---"

"She's been to Earth before," Woolsey cut in. "She's gone through your screening before, and you had no issues with her. Why is she suddenly now untrustworthy? And why wasn't I informed of this decision?"

"Your time on the city has made you less objective. You have sides to choose from now. You couldn't have presented an unbiased vote."

"So instead you cut me out of the loop completely?"

"Unless you want to risk your own credibility with us, I suggest that you stop talking." Woolsey made a frustrated sound in his throat, but fell silent.

_Blackmail. _John couldn't believe the lengths that these men were taking...but he could. They were IOA. Woolsey was the _best_ of them.

"What about Ronon?" he asked suddenly, wondering if the same restrictions would apply to the Satedan as well.

"Ronon Dex's situation here is different."

"How?"

"For one, Ronon has expressed no interst in returning to Pegasus at this time. And quite frankly, Ronon is not part wraith. Regardless of what Ms. Emmagan has or has not done, that DNA makes her unpredictable; and until we can ascertain what exactly she is capable of doing, we can't risk her being close enough for contact with the wraith. I'm sorry." Coolige stood up, and the rest of the board followed his example. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we've wasted too much time here already." One by one, they filed past them and out of the room.

John saw concern and regret on a few faces; but not enough. For the most part, the attitudes of the board members mirrored Mr. Collige's. Satisfied.

He glanced at Teyla and saw her eyes flicker back and forth in agitation between the board member's faces as they passed her. She ignored both him and Woolsey, who stood with them, his face set in an expression of anger. John was sure it was a toned-down version of his own expression.

Once the last man had disappeared down the hall, Woolsey turned to Teyla.

"Teyla, I'm sorry. Believe me, I _tried_ to---" She didn't let him finish. Pushing past him, she walked out the door and down the hall, in the opposite direction of the board members.

Richard turned to John with an exasperated expression on his face. The Colonel held up his hands.

"Let her go. I'll take care of her. You figure out if there's anything we can do to fix this." And before Woolsey could reply, he was out the door and after Teyla.

When he caught up with her, she was standing with her back to him, her arms wrapped around herself. This time John didn't hesitate. He moved to stand behind her right shoulder, and touched her arm gently.

"Teyla, we'll figure this out; they can't keep you here." Teyla choked a sob and turned into his chest, a broken whisper escaping.

"Torren..."

John clenched his free hand into a fist, hiding it by wrapping both arms around her in a gentle hig. The IOA was going to kill her if they kept her here...and he was not about to let that happen. Somehow, he was going to make this work.


End file.
